Spanish Steps. Both the piazza here and the steps that ascend from it get their names from the Spanish Embassy to the Vatican on the piazza, opposite the American Express office -- in spite of the fact that the staircase was built with French funds in 1723. In an allusion to the church of Trinità dei Monti at the top of the hill, the staircase is divided by three landings (beautifully banked with azaleas from mid-April to mid-May). This area has always welcomed tourists: 18th-century dukes and duchesses on their Grand Tour, 19th-century artists and writers in search of inspiration -- among them Stendhal, Honoré de Balzac, William Makepeace Thackeray, and Byron -- and today's enthusiastic hordes.